Healthy
Weight Loss for Permanent Change
The First Step to Your New Life

Questions & Answers

Below
are the answers to some questions that you may be asking. Included are
the answers to some questions that you should be asking.

Nutrition

Is there one
diet that is better than all the others?

Yes and No. According to the
research, all diets work - at least on average. But very few
people actually lose the average. Some will lose way more
while others may actually gain weight. The average tells you nothing
about what you can expect. Your results will be unique to you.

There
is certainly one diet out there that will work better for you than all
the others. All you have to do is find it. There are two things
that you should keep in mind when evaluating the potential of a diet.
They are the only two facts about nutrition that appear to apply to
everybody.

Unprocessed plants make you healthier.

Overeating compromises your health.

In
other words, there is one thing you can do right and one thing you can
do wrong. Whatever diet you choose should help you accomplish the one
and avoid the other.

How vegetarian should I be?

As vegetarian as you want to be.

When
you look at the totality of research on animal products, the results
come down in a very narrow range - either neutral to our health or
slightly bad. And they probably are slightly bad only when they are
overconsumed (remember that is the one real mistake you can make).That having been said,
eating animal products is not going to make you any healthier. And if
they take the place of whole plant foods that actually could make you
healthier, then you will be worse off in the long run.

Join the Meatless
Monday
movement. If every single American reduced their meat consumption by
just one seventh, the positive effects on every aspect of our
society would be staggering.

In traditional cuisines, animal was used more as a flavoring
than as a main part of the dish. A similar concept would be to make a
vegetarian stir-fry with rice, but make the rice with a chicken or beef
broth instead of water. This will drastically change the taste of the meal without really affecting it nutritionally.

Is a Juice Fast a good idea?

We prefer the term juice
diet because a fast is when you don't consume anything. It can be a good idea for a short period of time.

There
is no faster way to get quality nutrients into your body than to drink
fresh juice. If you are having trouble making a break from the food
industry, a short fast may be a good idea. We recommend that you not go
longer than ten days on just juice. Three to seven days should be
plenty of time to make you feel better and change your food drive.

The problem with an extended juice fast is the lack of chewing.
As far as your body is concerned liquids are for thirst/hydration.
Anything that is going to satisfy your hunger needs to be chewed.

Eating
is an autonomic activity. That means it is involuntary. But not like
your heartbeat, more like your breathing. You have complete control
over your breathing - up to a point. You can even stop breathing for a
while. But if you do, the autonomic processes of your body will
eventually take over and for a period of time you will have almost no
control as your body makes a mad grab for oxygen.

This
is a potential problem for any diet that restricts your intake. But it
is particulary problematic for a liquid diet. The longer you restrict
or eliminate chewing the more likely you are to enter into the
so-called "Re-Feeding Period" where you gain back all the weight you
lost and then some.

I can't stand the thought of
green juice. Can't I just eat the vegetables
instead?

Absolutely. You are probably better off that way. Knock
yourself out. This is enough for one person for one day:

What
about the hCG diet?

Human chorionic gonadotropin, better
known as hCG, has been around as
part of a weight loss methodology since the 1970s. It is always coupled
with an ultra-low-calorie diet (more on that in a minute). The
supposed benefits of hCG are:

1) It causes additional weight loss by preferentially burning fat for
energy.
2) This extra fat burning will cause a more attractive or “normal”
distribution of fat than would otherwise occur.
3) It will reduce the sense of hunger and provide energy and a sense of
well-being.

I guess the people who believe in hCG must know a lot of even-tempered
pregnant women who lose lots of weight in just the right places as they
effortlessly turn down dessert. I mean come on! It doesn’t even work
that way for the pregnant women! Why would it work that way for you?

But let’s forget about that. Let’s also forget that the FDA has
required a disclaimer on hCG since 1976 stating that there is no
substantial evidence that it works. We’ll also have to forget that as
of December 6, 2011, the FDA has prohibited the sale of “homeopathic”
and OTC hCG products, calling them fraudulent and illegal. Instead,
let’s assume that hCG works as advertised. That still leaves you with a
HUGE problem.

It’s that diet.

Which is ironic because the actual food on most hCG diets is pretty
healthy. It is simply far
too restricted. hCG diets contain as little as
500 calories per
day, which is half of what is considered subsistence level.
Such
a restricted calorie diet has been shown to cause gallstone formation,
irregular heartbeat and an imbalance of the electrolytes that keep the
body's muscles and nerves functioning properly.

Almost all
weight loss diets rely heavily on creating an energy deficit, but the
hCG plan puts them all to shame!
And how do you think your body is going to respond to that? It is going
to
adapt and when all is said and done you will likely be considerably
heavier than before you started.

Maybe you’re convinced that hCG will magically protect you from that
reaction. Doesn’t that seem at all like wishful thinking? Just
remember: Dr. Newberry is a highly reputable doctor who researched hCG
and decided it would violate his own personal code of conduct to charge
people for a product of such questionable effectiveness.

We
don’t carry hCG even though “Do you carry hCG?” is easily our most
frequently asked question. It’s not illegal and we could be selling a
lot if we offered it. Ask yourself: why don't we?

I have a friend who has done
very well on hCG and I am very enthusiastic about it. How come she has
done so well if this stuff doesn’t really work?

Ask your friend if she was taking any other
prescriptions. She was probably taking Phentermine (one of the appetite
suppresants we also carry) in addition to the hCG. This is a
big part of why she wasn’t hungry and had so much energy. She also
simply adapted. That same process that causes unwanted metabolic
changes on such a restricted calorie diet will also have dampening
effects on hunger. If you do anything for long enough you will get used
to it.

Our advice is to wait.

See how your friend is doing six months down the road before you spend
any money on hCG.

Physical
Fitness and Exercise

My friend told me that you
say not to exercise. Is that true?

No. That's not true.

Physical activity
and good food
are the foundation of a healthy
lifestyle. Exercise
is what you do to make up for a lack of physical activity. If you were
active enough in your daily life there would be no need for exercise.
Even more shocking - if you sit around too much, exercise won't really
help!

No matter what you
eat, you can improve
your health by being active. But don't get confused, if your
food
is bad, your health will be bad. Exercise just keeps it from being as
bad as it could be. Your health is primarily determined by the food you
eat. Exercise
makes you fit. Good food makes you healthy.

There is a
very
seductive logic at play when you try to use exercise to get healthy or
lose weight. It feels proactive and, more importantly, it feels like
penance. So, you just ate a cream cheese danish. Bad human! Oh, the
guilt! What
can you do right afterward to make up for it? Obvious answer: take a
jog.
Actual answer: nothing.

If you want to make up for the danish wait a while then eat a
carrot.

So, what does exercise
accomplish?

First and foremost, being physically
active makes
it much easier to maintain weight loss. Just remember that "exercise"
is
not the only form of physical activity. Gardening, cleaning, dancing
and sex are also forms of physical activity. There must be all sorts of
physical activity you
enjoy but don't consider exercise. Guess what. If you're moving, it
counts.

If you want to be physically capable, you had better be active. If
someone you
really admire
were to ask you to run in a 10K charity race with them would
you be capable? What if it was just a
5 mile walk in the woods? How capable you are depends on how
active you have been.

If
you want to age well, you had better be active. No matter how well you
eat,
no
matter how healthy you are, you will eventally reach the age where you
can't do anything for yourself anymore. How old you are when you start
to physically deteriorate depends on how active you have been over the
course of your life.

If
you want to be as sharp as possible, you had better be active. There is
a surprisingly
strong connection
between exercise and mental function, particularly holding
off the deterioration of
mental function that comes with age. How sharp you are and how sharp
you stay depends a lot on
how active you are.

What, exactly, do you
recommend for exercise?

Keep in mind that any type of movement
helps you
become healthier and more fit. Gardening and housework count about as
much as time on the elliptical trainer.

Remember that it is
never too late in life to start being more active. You will see some
very rapid improvements in your physical capabilities.

If you have been inactive for a while then start slow. Just
walk.

And keep walking. At least 20 miles per week. Build up to 35.
If you want to be
more fit than that, go see a fitness expert.

And don't sit down. Statistically, sitting is worse for you than
smoking. Look for opportunities to stand instead of sit. Talking on the
phone is the perfect opportunity to get off your ass. In fact, do you
really need to be sitting down right now?

A Note From Dr. Newberry

My name is
Marcus Newberry. I am a physician retired from the Medical University
of South Carolina with practices in Greenville and Spartanburg. At MUSC
I was Dean of the College of Medicine from 1974 to 1985, interim
president in 1982, and Academic Vice President and Provost from 1985 to
1996.

I went to medical school at Emory University in Atlanta and served two
years in the Epidemic Intelligence Service of the National Center for
Disease Control and Prevention, which contributed to a lasting interest
in public health and primary prevention. In 1977 I founded the Cooper
River Bridge Run to promote fitness and health in the Charleston area.

Currently, I spend some of my time in Charleston chairing the steering
committee that assists Mayor Joe Riley with his challenge to
the community to lose 100,000 pounds. The project is Lighten
Up Charleston. The committee consists of the City of
Charleston, MUSC, The Citadel, College of Charleston, Charleston County
School District, SC DHEC Region 7 and Roper/St. Francis Hospitals. My
co-chair is Dr. Patrick O'Neal who is on the faculty at MUSC and is
currently President of the Obesity
Society.

My practice in Spartanburg was established in 1997 and Greenville in
2000. My focus is weight management through lifestyle transition. I
named the practices Nutritional Health Center to indicate my
intention of developing a concept and a model for the practice
of primary prevention. Healthy eating and a healthy lifestyle
can help keep you from ever having to participate in our sick care
system.